The Malachite Man

Description: In 1995 or 1996 a dozer operator working in Utah uncovered bones located below the surface in sandstone. A total of ten sets of human bones were found and partially fossilized with malachite and torqoise minerals.

Mainstream Theory: The Moab Man/Malachite Man bones represent a number of intrusive burials in the Dakota Sandstone, and are not integral parts of the host formation. The bones evidently represent intentional or accidental entombments of native Americans in a mining environment. As reported by a number of conventional workers and even some creationist authors, the bones are largely unfossilized and of essentially modern appearance, except for the greenish stain. There is no foundation for the claims of a few creationists that the bones contradict mainstream geology or support dinosaur/human cohabitation. -- Glen J. Kuban

Alternative Theory: The position and depth of the bones indicate they were buried in a catastrophic event such as a flood rather than buried. The bones were found in 50 to 100 foot deep sandstone from the cretraceous dated at about 150 million years ago. It does not seem likely that these people were the victims of a mine colapse for several reasons. Among those buried were small children which would not likely be in a mine. There were no tunnels found during the excavation of the area and no bones were crushed by falling debris. It is also very unlikely that they buried there as their positions indicate they were not laid in the ground but tumbled. Also, they would not have been buried over 100 feet in hard sandstone.